The Friendly Robot Cake

Here's a cute little robot cake I made for a friend!

Giveaways For A Cause: $25 gift certificate for my Etsy store

I was approached by an old friend (Hi Steph!) and was asked if I would like to donate an item for a charity auction.  I was more than happy to!  It is called giveaways for a cause, and they auction off items to help save children from human trafficking.  Please go to their site and see what they have to offer, maybe you'll even want to bid on the gift certificate I'm offering to my Etsy store.  Here's the link to my auction, go help a good cause!

3 Tier wedding cake with fresh flowers

I love making wedding cakes.  I love delivering wedding cakes.  I love setting up wedding cakes.  I love eating wedding cakes!  This is the cake that resulted in the red velvet cake a few posts ago, and yes, the middle tier did end up being spice cake.  The bottom and top tier are 3 layers each of chocolate cake, and 2 layers of almond buttercream.  The middle layer is 3 layers of buttermilk spice cake, and 2 layers of cream cheese frosting.  The whole cake was then covered in almond buttercream, and decorated with the most gorgeous real flowers!  It was a beautiful wedding!

Angry Birds Cupcake Tower

Every couple days I just sit back and think "Wow!  I have the best job ever!"  I still can't believe I get to make money doing something that is so fun - and is so rewarding!  These cupcakes are a good example - so much fun to do, I love making cupcakes!  The birthday boy wanted chocolate and white cupcakes, and he wanted the red angry birds, but he especially wanted to include King Pig.  The cupcake toppers are made out of marshmallow fondant, each one cut out or sculpted by hand.  The king pig cake was sculpted and covered with fondant as well.  I hear he really loved them!

5 Layer Red Velvet Cake

Yes, 5 layers.  It would have been 6, but my dear hubby decided he needed a snack.  I'm resourceful though, so I crumbled the rest of that layer and used it to decorate the sides of the cake.  I got the basic recipe from one of my favorite blogs - bakerella -http://www.bakerella.com/red-velvet-cake/  It's a great recipe!  Now I have to tell you why I made this cake.  It's a little embarrassing.  I was baking a wedding cake, and I had already baked all of the chocolate layers (6), and I was moving on to the 3 middle layers.  I gathered all of my ingredients and realized I didn't have everything I needed to make red velvet cake!  I had 40 minutes left on the timer for my last 16" base layer, so I ran to the nearest store for the missing items.  I hurried home with a few minutes to spare, and started making the red velvet batter.  As I started mixing everything, I realized they hadn't even ordered red velvet!  I was supposed to be making spice cake!  That explained why I didn't have all of the right ingredients!  So instead of wasting all of this batter, I divided it between 6 pans.  Oh well.  Lesson learned!  All of my co-workers got to enjoy cake that night!

Zoo Animal Cookies

Sometimes the best thing about baking for other people sometimes is getting to listen to their ideas.  There are a hundred different cookie designs going through your head, but you just need an excuse to justify making it!  This client needed 3 dozen cookies, so I did 4 different shapes.  She requested a lion, an elephant, a zebra, and a giraffe.  I know I've said this before - but these are my new favorite!  They were to fun to do!  Especially the giraffe!  

A tool kit dad actually wants!

I was trying to think of a good cookie collection for Fathers Day, and I thought of the typical tie, but what dad doesn't like tools?  Maybe it's just the men in my life, but tools are a big part of their day.  Maybe the man in your life is a computer genius, or an accountant - but really, even if it isn't their profession, doesn't every man like to think they're handy with tools?  So here's a tool set they'll actually be glad to receive!  Because really, all dad ever wants is something to eat!

Cookies for the graduate

It's that time of year again - can you believe it?  Graduation time!  Graduates of all ages will be celebrating this month and next, and I can't think of a better way to make it sweeter than with cookies!  I made these with disco dust, which means that myself and my kitchen will literally sparkle for weeks.  It's worth it though!  There's no better way to make a cookie POP than with edible glitter!  What's funny is that when you eat one of these bad boys you walk around the rest of the day with your mouth covered in glitter, which is what happens to my dad every time he sneaks a cookie!  I'm going to be able to customize the cookies to match their school colors, which will make them really special.

Teacher gift cookies

Wow!  I have been so busy the last week, too busy to post all of the pictures I've taken of my current work. I'll start my first post with the teacher thank you cookies.  I made these with my son Charlie's teacher in mind.  He just loves her, as I'm sure a lot of kindergarten boys love their teachers.  I wanted to do fun, bright colors, but I wanted to keep them sophisticated enough for an older student to be proud to give them to their teacher.  So here they are - apples, chalkboards and rulers, personalized with the student and teachers name.

Lilac Cookie Bouquet - brush embroidery

I had a very busy week last week!  I finished all of my Etsy orders, then started working on all of my local orders.  I did lots of flowers and butterflies on a stick for my Mother's Day cookie bouquets, but my favorite by far was the lilac cookies I did by special request.  I wasn't sure I would have time to make it, so I told my friend it would be a miracle if I was able to do it.  I used a technique fairly new to me called brush embroidery.  If you remember, I used it in my ballet collection, but it's more commonly used on flowers.  I think anyone who is creating new things constantly has a new "favorite", so for now, this is mine!

Cookie Giveaway!!!

I'm giving away one dozen Mothers Day cookies!  Head on over to my Facebook page for more information. If you are new to my facebook page, your "like" counts as one vote!

 www.facebook.com/AllThingsExquisite

Yo Gabba Gabba!

Here are some Toodee and Foofa cookies I did for a little girl.  These are huge cookies!  6"x7"!  I drew the outline first, then piped and flooded all the details.  My kids were never huge Yo Gabba Gabba fans, so I didn't even know these characters, but I guess I know them a little better now!

Road Bike Cookies!

Jim and me at the ULCER century a few years ago

A little while back I made a cookie bouquet for a friend of mine.  He is the most amazing athlete, he competes in cycling and triathlons all the time.  The most amazing part, though, is that he is almost 80.  You heard me, 80!  He is the husband of a dear woman I have worked with for almost 10 years, and when I got my new road bike, he was the first in line to go on a long ride with me.  I owed him for something nice he did for me and my husband, he gave us his slot in a century and a smaller ride a few weeks ago, and they are expensive events so I wanted to give him something to show how thankful I was.  He has a silver bike, and loves the Utes, so I made him some cookies to represent those.  I also made bike tires and a water bottle.